April 19, 2012

Paving time

Signs have gone up at all the entrances to the East Lake Sammamish Trail in Issaquah alerting users to the imminent lengthy closure of the trail for paving. Here are photos of the sign and its map with a transcription below.

Trail closure noticeTrail closure map

Click for bigger versions (and click again on Flickr for bigger still).

The sign reads:

Construction of the East Lake Sammamish Master Plan Trail Project will require the closure of the southernmost 2.2 miles of the trail corridor in Issaquah for up to twelve months beginning in spring 2012. The section of the Issaquah-Preston Trail between the ELST and East Lake Sammamish Parkway will be closed as well.

We appreciate your patience as we work toward building a better trail!

Information about the East Lake Sammamish Master Plan Trail Project, including project updates, can be accessed at www.kingcounty.gov/eastlakesammamishtrail or by calling Gina Auld, Capital Project Manager, at 206-263-7281.

Master Plan Trail Features

  • Paved trail surface, soft-surface shoulders and vegetated buffer
  • Traffic control measures (signage and crossing treatments) where the trail crosses private driveways or roadways
  • Stormwater management system to control runoff from the trail
  • Retaining walls to support slopes and reduce embankment areas
  • Crosswalks at public access points
  • Litter receptacles, doggy litter bag boxes, and trail etiquette signs
  • Bollards at trail crossings to prevent unauthorized vehicles from driving onto the trail

Project funding provided by the 2008-2013 voter-approved Proposition 2, Parks Expansion Levy. Thank you for your support!

Don’t expect too much from the project site. They haven’t updated it since January when the project went out to bid.

Start thinking about alternate routes if you’re currently a regular user of this trail. This is the best I-90 crossing we have even as gravel so its loss will be keenly felt during construction. Hopefully the weather and Murphy will cooperate and they’ll finish in record time!

October 2, 2009

Bike/ped counts

I haven’t heard from many people about this week’s bike/ped counts, but here are the numbers I have. I’ll update this post if I get more.

Where, When, Weather Mode Northbound Southbound Eastbound Westbound Total
Newport Way SW and Front St S,
9/29 7am-9am,
50F partly cloudy
Bike 3 0 2 2 7
Ped 14 0 60 14 88
E Sunset Way and 6th Ave NE,
10/1 7am-9am,
52F partly cloudy
Bike 0 0 1 1 2
Ped 2 2 6 3 13
Newport Way SW and Front St S,
10/1 4pm-6pm,
50F partly cloudy
Ped 9 11 7 9 36
Other 2 0 2 0 4
Newport Way and SR-900,
10/1 4pm-6pm,
58F raining
Bike 1 1 6 3 11
Ped 0 0 3 4 7
Where, When, Weather Mode Northbound Southbound Eastbound Westbound Total

September 14, 2009

PARK(ing) Day

This Friday, September 19 is PARK(ing) Day. This is the day when communities around the world take back a bit of their town that has been set aside for cars and turn it into a park.

That’s right, GAIT has partnered with our friends at artEAST to turn a parking space across Front Street from UP Front Gallery into a park for one day. The plan is to have (simulated) grass, (real) plants, (real) artists making (real) art, and a (real) bike rack.

There is more info about the event at the Issaquah PARK(ing) Day group page.

If you plan to stop by and enjoy the park, you can RSVP for the event.

If you can hang out at the park for an hour or two on Friday, keep an eye on things, and explain the concept to curious passers-by, fire me an email with your availability and I’ll coordinate. The park will be open from 5am to 9pm.

Tell your friends, and I hope to see you at the park!

August 6, 2009

Bicycle Issaquah!

thumbnail of Issaquah Bike MapKaren Behm has been working on a bike map for Issaquah for over a year now, and Tuesday afternoon the first edition came back from the printer! You can pick up your copy at the Visitor Center, Bicycle Center, or Veloce Velo. Or flag me down around town, I’ve got a stack in the trunk on my bike.

If you’d like to peer at it on your computer, you can download it right here as two big PDF files. One of 2MB for the map itself and another of a whopping 6.6MB for the back side with the notes, some ride directions, and other useful info.

But get a paper copy, it’s fabulous! And give Karen an attagirl next time you see her.

Big thanks to the City for funding this first printing out of the hotel room tax revenue. And big thanks to Councilman Fred Butler for cluing us in to that funding option.

UPDATE: The printed maps are all gone for the moment. Email us if you want one and we’ll put you on the list for when we get another print run funded or if we find some hiding in a corner somewhere.

May 27, 2009

Coming events

Bob Miller will be guiding his famous Bridges of Issaquah bike ride starting at 6:30pm Wednesday 5/27 from the Community Center parking lot. If you haven’t been before this ride is an easy ramble around town suitable for all skill levels. If you have been before, let Bob know and he’ll mix things up for you.

Also Wednesday night 5/27, the city’s Resource Conservation Office is hosting their second Sustainability Movie night. This time they’re showing “Who Killed the Electric Car?” which despite its car-centric focus explores issues applicable to any “alternative” transportation in this country. The movie starts at 6:30pm at the KCLS Service Center building on Newport Way behind Target (not at the library!). I’ll be there talking to folks about GAIT, so be sure to come say hi.

This Saturday is the last Saturday of the month and that means it’s time for another Trash Walk. We’re going to return to an earlier site this time, so meet at the east side of the Community Center at 9am where we’ll tidy up along the trail that heads south from there. Bring gloves and wear blackberry-resistant clothing. Hand trimmers probably wouldn’t hurt.

Looking forward, Bob Miller will reprise his Fix a Flat class at the library on Tuesday June 9 at 6:30pm. Registration (required!) opens on June 1 through the library web page.

March 25, 2009

March trash walk

Can you believe it’s the last Saturday in March already?

This month we’re going to work on the boardwalk along SR900. Actually more _under_ the boardwalk.

We’ll start soon after 9am on Saturday (3/28). Meet at the service station at the corner of Gilman Blvd and SR900. We’ll work our way away from the freeway (South) from there. This will be another soggy one, so bring your mucky boots and gloves. I’ll be out there rain or shine. Cancel for sticking snow :-)

If you come to help and we’re nowhere in sight, give me a call and I’ll let you know what’s going on. My cell number is 425-503-6815.

Hope to see you!

March 3, 2009

March CTC

This week’s Council Transportation Committee meeting has some walk/bike/bus stuff on the agenda. I plan to be there, but more citizen presence is always welcome at these things. There isn’t always a chance to provide direct input, but hearing the discussion can be instructive.

The meeting is at 5pm on Thursday 3/5 (yes, extremely inconvenient) at City Hall NW which is by the Holiday Inn up north of the freeway.

Here are the agenda items with approximate times (these pretty much always stretch) and notes from me about what the walk/bike/bus relevance is:

5:00 Newport way trail oakcrest to lakemont
(more discussion of the mixed-use trail to be constructed along Newport Way west of SR900)

5:05 Black Nugget Road Re-Opening

5:30 AB 5954 Operations and Maintenance Agreement

5:35 AB 5955 SQUAK MOUNTAIN TRANSIT – PWE WORK PLAN
(forwarded from Council, study of options for a bus on Squak)

5:45 AB 5956 SE bypass project record of decision– PWE WORK PLAN

5:55 I-90 Seismic Retrofit Project – WSDOT
(no direct impact to walk/bike/bus, but will affect the undercrossing of the East Lake Sammamish Trail (you may have noticed all the orange fences that just went up))

6:00 April CTC Meeting Schedule

Trash walk #2

The weather cooperated again on Saturday for six stalwart GAIT members who spent an hour and a half of their weekend pulling an unlikely number of bottles and candy wrappers and other detritus out of the little creek that runs past the community center along the trail. There was some stuff we couldn’t get to through all the brambles, but otherwise there’s a lot less garbage in the stretch from the start of the trail out past the skate park.

Here are some pictures (click for bigger versions):

Trash walkersEx-bike

February 4, 2009

First trash walk

I sent out email announcing this event only 13 hours before it was going to start so I didn’t really expect anyone else to come, but I was pleasantly surprised when Kate McWiggins joined Becky Brooks and me at 9am last Saturday to pick up trash along Front Street.

We spent about an hour and fifteen minutes and the three of us managed to clear all the unsightly leavings from the whole stretch along the east side of Front Street between Gilman Blvd and the center median of I-90 including a little ways down the eastbound onramp. This resulted in a big full bag that weighed probably 40 pounds. The folks at Stereotomy were nice enough to let me toss the bag in their dumpster for disposal.

We had a good time doing it and I’m looking forward to having more people for our next event. We’ll plan on the last Saturday of the month for these, so the next one is on February 28th. I’ll announce the location when it gets a little closer. If you have suggestions for an area that could use some attention, let me know!

Here are a few pictures:
TrashCompatriotContained

January 24, 2009

Plans for 2009

No, this isn’t a dead site.

We had our first GAIT meeting of 2009 this past Wednesday and spent the time talking about goals for this year and who might want to take charge of them. Here’s a summary of what we decided.

Jeff Youngstrom will do and/or coordinate the following:

  • Inventory of facilities
  • Monthly (or more frequent) trash walks
  • Web page improvements
  • Attend Council Transportation Committee Meetings
  • Table at appropriate community events

Barb Shelton will coordinate moving us toward 501(c)(3) status.

Bob Miller will do the following:

  • Wednesday evening guided bike rides
  • “Fix a flat” class or classes (details on the first coming soon!)
  • possibly other classes

There was a lot of interest in working on Safe Routes to Schools, especially in connection to the planned redevelopment at Issaquah High School. We’d especially like to get parents of school-aged children involved in an effort to push this issue with the school district and the city. I can’t remember if one person was going to take responsibility for this, but Tina Anderson, Barb Shelton, Karen Behm, and Erik Schneider all expressed interest.

Karen Shively volunteered to become our parade coordinator for the year, so if you want to be in the 4th of July or Salmon Days parades, or have an idea for an entertaining entry in either focused on transportation, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with her.

Finally, Karen Behm had the idea that we should meet with our new Police Chief and discuss issues of common interest. If you have something transportation-related that you’d like to discuss with the police, give a yell and we’ll add you to the meeting or add your issue to our list.